TL;DR
A gap existed in understanding how Git stores data, as many believe it only tracks changes to files. A filesystem abstraction called Billy was used to make a Tigris object storage bucket behave like a traditional filesystem, allowing it to interface with Git.
✦ Why It Matters
Engineers should consider Git's storage model when managing large binary files to avoid inefficiencies.
Key Takeaways
Full Summary
Git is often misunderstood as only tracking changes to files, but it actually stores entire file versions, complicating the management of large binary files. To explore this, a developer utilized Billy, a filesystem abstraction for Go, to enable a Tigris object storage bucket to function like a traditional filesystem.
This allowed the bucket to interact seamlessly with go-git, a pure-Go implementation of Git's protocols. By stripping away the user interface (porcelain) of Git, the developer discovered that the underlying storage mechanism is more complex than commonly perceived.
The findings highlight that Git's storage model can lead to inefficiencies when dealing with large files, as it retains complete file versions rather than just diffs. This insight is crucial for engineers working with Git in environments where large binary files are prevalent, as it may necessitate alternative storage strategies.
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